Classes & Workshops

Note: All listings on this page reflect Pacific Time. Unless noted otherwise, classes are held virtually via Zoom.

Class Spotlight

FSAP May Mental Health Awareness Month Events and Initiatives: A series of initiatives & events aimed at promoting mental well-being & fostering a supportive community. These are initiatives that leaders & teams can implement independently.

Mastering Hybrid Meetings: This two-part training series is designed to equip you with the essential tools and techniques to master both the logistics and facilitation of hybrid collaboration. Each session stands alone and you’re welcome to attend one or both. Part 1: Mastering the Logistics of Hybrid Meetings and Part 2: Brainstorming & Decision-Making in Hybrid Meetings

Difficult Conversations | Wednesday, May 21: Join us in exploring strategies for navigating difficult conversations in both your personal and professional life.

STEP Deadlines & Resources

STEP learning resources | Watch the short STEP overview video | Contact your STEP team

2024/2025 Performance Year (April 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025)
– Finalize Criteria: Complete by March 31, 2025
– Manager Review : Complete by April 15 2025

Need quick answers? – Review this FAQ

Upcoming Classes and Workshops

Featured

UCOP STEP: Setting Goals and Competenices

Online: Wednesday, May 7, 11:00am - 12:00pm

In this instructor-led training on the Staff Talent Evaluation Process (STEP), we will expand on the materials presented in the STEP Fundamentals for Employees eCourse by going into detail on the first stage of STEP, Define Criteria. You will practice writing goals and review how to align them to the UCOP Competencies. This course is designed to support new employees and employees who would like a refresher to elevate their STEP goals.

Project Management I

Online : Thursday, May 8, 8:30am - 12:30pm

This is a three-part series, Project Management Level I, led by The Center for Project Management. This workshop series emphasizes the fundamentals of how to initiate, create and manage a project.

Session 1 Objectives: This course helps students to recognize the critical importance of having a clear, shared understanding of a project at the outset by creating a comprehensive project charter, or the decision document that authorizes the project to move into detailed planning and designates the project manager.
Session 2 Objectives: In this course, students learn how to build a professional-grade project plan and detailed estimates.
Session 3 Objectives: In this course, students learn how to convert a project plan and estimates into a project schedule, and to track and communicate project status.

Note: Participants must attend all 3 sessions on Thursday, May 8, 15 and 22 to receive credit for the course.

FSAP - Breaking the Taboo: Talking about Suicide and Seeking to Understand When Someone is Having Thoughts of Suicide

Online: Thursday, May 8, 12:00 - 1:00pm

All of us have been impacted by suicide in some way, whether that’s through hearing about suicide in the news and media, having experienced thoughts of suicide ourselves, losing a loved one to suicide, or trying to support someone we know who is coping with thoughts of suicide. Despite the many ways this issue touches our lives, it often remains a taboo topic that’s difficult to discuss. Yet we know that open, compassionate conversations can help save lives. In this webinar, Dr. Joe Orovecz will help us develop our comfort in talking about suicide and (perhaps more importantly) listening when someone we know is experiencing thoughts of self-harm. You’ll learn more about how to:

Communicate in a supportive way when someone is in emotional distress
Resources that can be helpful in moments of crisis (including 988, which you can dial right now anywhere in the US to be connected to a crisis counselor for support)
Attend to your own wellbeing when supporting someone else

Register for FSAP - Breaking the Taboo: Talking about Suicide and Seeking to Understand When Someone is Having Thoughts of Suicide

Box Fundamentals

Online : Wednesday, May 14, 10:00 - 11:00am

This course will give you an overview of Box, the cloud-based service that provides secure file storage and file sharing. Topics covered include:

How to use Box
How to collaborate with UCOP and non-UCOP people
How to comment directly on files, folder permissions, shared links, and many other tips that will help you when using Box.

Administrators from IT will be on hand to answer your questions and review the best features of Box.

UCOP Safety: Basic Awarness

Online: Wednesday, May 14, 2:00 - 3:00pm

Melissa Collins, Program Manager for Security, Risk and Resilience, will facilitate this live virtual class that will provide basic safety tips to help employees feel informed, alert, and safe as they travel to and from the workplace. Extra time will be allotted for questions and feedback.

FSAP - Working Parents: Strategies for Resilience and Avoiding Burnout

Online: Friday, May 16, 12:00 - 1:00pm

This 1-hour webinar will provide you with an overview of today’s challenges in being a successful working parent and the risks for parental burnout. By the end of the webinar, you will be able to:

Recognize signs and causes of parental burnout
Discover personal, family, and career strategies for prevention & recovery
Design your own plan to make working parenthood more sustainable
Know how to access resources for dealing with parental burnout

Mastering the Logistics of Hybrid Meetings

Online : Tuesday, May 20, 11:00am - 12:00pm

Effectively facilitating hybrid meetings can be technically challenging. Come learn how to set up hybrid meetings to fully engage both remote and in-person attendees. In this training, we will walk through how to prepare effectively and set up all technical components including audio, camera, and the use of Zoom features. 

Difficult Conversations

Online : Wednesday, May 21, 10:00am - 12:00pm

Ever had a disagreement with someone where the conversation didn’t go quite the way you wanted it to? As conflict is inevitable, join us in exploring strategies for navigating difficult conversations in both your personal and professional life. In this highly interactive course, you will learn Core Principles to successfully navigate disagreements and apply them through practice role-playing. By the end of the workshop, you’ll feel more confident in approaching difficult conversations with anyone in your life.

FSAP - Move into Stillness: African and Middle Eastern Beats Meet Meditation

Online: Friday, May 23, 12:00 - 1:00pm

This immersive experience is designed to refresh and restore, blending music, movement, and meditation in a deeply grounding way. Please ensure you have access to a private space where you feel comfortable moving. This session is ideal for anyone who enjoys moving to music and is looking for a guided yet private experience to recharge during the day.

Brainstorming & Decision-Making in Hybrid Meetings

Online: Wednesday, May 28, 10:00am - 12:00pm

It’s critical to ensure all team members have a voice when it comes to collaborative processes like brainstorming and decision-making.  Facilitating these types of collaborative meetings is especially challenging in a hybrid environment.  In this workshop, we will learn protocols designed for the hybrid environment that lead to high participation, engagement, and include all voices.  In this session, participants will learn and try step by step protocols for productive brainstorming and decision-making in hybrid meetings.

GROW Plus: Accountability Conversations for Managers

Online: Wednesday, May 28, 1:00 - 3:30pm

GROW Plus: Accountability Conversations for Managers is the second part in the required live training series on manager and employee performance conversations. This training answers the question: What do I do when my coaching is not improving performance? In this virtual, live, and highly interactive workshop, we will cover: providing productive critical feedback, managing emotions, creating efficient documentation, and holding effective accountability conversations. Managers will also practice having role Accountability Conversations using the UCOP GROW Plus framework.

FSAP - Sensory Tools for Stress Relief: Strategies for Calming the Nervous System

Online : Thursday, May 29, 12:00 - 1:00pm

Feeling overwhelmed by stress? Whether it’s work demands, personal responsibilities, or the challenges of daily life, our nervous system is constantly processing sensory input that impacts how we feel and function. This session will explore techniques to help you:

Understand stress and nervous system dysregulation.
Discover sensory-based strategies (sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste) for emotional regulation.
Learn practical ways to integrate these tools into your daily routine for greater balance and resilience.

People Leader Forum - Understanding UCOP Leaves and Accommodations

Online: Friday, June 6, 1:00 - 2:00pm

The People Leader Forum is a monthly opportunity for people managers to connect with one another to develop leadership skills, build community, share best practices, swap strategies for navigating current challenges and learn to better support themselves and their teams.

June 6: Understanding UCOP Leaves and Accommodations
August 1: Difficult Conversations
September 5: Steady Leadership in Turbulent Times: Psychological Tools for Navigating Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity l(VUCA)
October 3: Equity Process Review
November 7: Building Effective Teams

Excel Macro/VBA

Online : Tuesday, June 10, 9:00am - 12:00pm

In this two-part series, you will learn how Macros and VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) can be used to customize and automate repetitive tasks in Excel. Macros can automate those tasks to be repeated when needed. Where macros are limited, VBA coding can expand a user’s ability to perform those necessary tasks.

Key concepts for parts one and two includes:

Recording and Executing Macros
Editing Macros
Adding Visual Basic to Enhance Macros
Creating Interactive VBA Procedures
Design Decision-Making VBA
Looping VBA Procedures
Debugging and Error Handling VBA Techniques

We strongly recommend that the learner has successfully completed MS Excel Intermediate or have the requisite skills taught in this class before enrolling. Participants must attend both sessions from 9am-12pm on Tuesday June 10 and 17.

GROWing your Check In Conversations for Managers

Online: Wednesday, June 11, 10:00am - 12:00pm

GROW is a popular coaching framework used around the world for problem solving, goal setting and performance improvement. This interactive session provides managers the opportunity to discuss and practice using GROW framework as a strategy and tool to support engaging STEP checkpoint conversations.

The framework breaks down the conversation into 4 parts: Goal, Reality, Options, & Will:

Determine Goal
Discuss Current Reality
Discuss Options
Determine the Will

Note: The ecourse “GROWing your Checkpoint Conversations must be taken prior to this class”

UCOP Safety: Active Attacker

Online : Wednesday, June 11, 2:00 - 3:00pm

Melissa Collins, Program Manager for Security, Risk and Resilience, will facilitate this live virtual class in which participants will learn skills and strategies to respond if exposed to active attacker situations. The course will review real-life incidents and discuss options in the event of potential similar encounters.

Navigating Change and Transitions

Online : Thursday, June 12, 10am - 12pm

“The only thing that is constant is change” — Heraclitus who lived 100 years before Plato knew this, and it is still true in today’s world. This workshop will explore the human response to change and stages within the transition process. Participants will expand their capability to successfully navigate through personal and professional changes while utilizing the William Bridges’ Transition Model and Psychological Flexibility framework.

Digital Detox: Balancing Screen Time for Better Connections

Online: Wednesday, June 25, 1:00 - 2:00pm

This session will address the effects of excessive screen time and the importance of regularly disconnecting from technology. It will cover strategies for setting healthy boundaries, establishing a digital detox routine, and managing the constant flow of news and social media. Additionally, the session will explore ways to improve work-life balance and foster stronger connections, both personally and professionally.

The Science of Managing Stress

Online : Thursday, June 26, 11:00am - 12:00pm

ob stress can be all-consuming — but it doesn’t have to be. Find ways to identify your triggers, keep perspective, learn helpful strategies, and know when to seek help.

Additional Classes

Using the UC Learning Center

Registration: Log in to the UC Learning Center using your UCOP login and password. In the Search box on the left, enter the name of the class you want. Select the session you want, then select the Register box and Submit.

Cancellation: You can cancel your registration through the UC Learning Center. We ask that you cancel 48 hours before the scheduled class time so that others may sign up, or contact the Learning & Development Team.

If you require any assistance or accommodation with finding, registering or attending a class please email the Learning & Development Team.